Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
Speaker: Juventus make it six wins in a row, two nil, sorry, correction, three nil win over Lazio, probably Juventus' most emphatic performance of the season, I would say. So Allegri was a dead man walking, just just a couple of weeks ago, really. What has what has changed for Allegri?
Speaker: I think it's a number of things. First of all, he's playing with the same structure and the same lineup, and he's got the balance right. The 3 -5 -2 with the cross stitch on that left wing. A strong central line. Fagioli has been an absolute revelation. Rabio, I think, is the symbol of this Allegri 2 .0 Uwe.
Speaker: And everyone is, everything is just clicked, it's all come together. And everyone is taking responsibilities when the big names haven't been there. When the dimarias, the vlawiches, the pogbas, all these paredes, etc. When they're not there, everyone else is taking responsibility.
Speaker: And it's all just come together. And it's so impressive. It feels like you could have played that game for four hours and Latzi would never have scored a goal. Yes, Latzi or without Zakani or without.
Speaker: and so on, but still they were a good side and Juve just dismissed them, just brushed them off. This looked like this ruthless Allegri Juve air about them, that when his teams just go in there and win, and just ruthlessly win,
Speaker: and don't just dominate teams by the ruthlessness and just break teams mentally. I think the first goal was of course Iqhala by Providel. But yeah, I mean, Moise Ken looks happy as well. He looks like he's really coming to his own. It's scored three goals now, or four goals so far this season. He's scored a brace.
Speaker: But no, it's all coming together. And I mean, as I said, I mean, I've said consistently, if you if you are out of the top four, when the World Cup break comes, then I think Allegri will resign. Well, they're not out of the top four. They come. They're comfortably in third, a point ahead of their two points behind Milan.
Speaker: They're very much in the top four race. And I think the top four race is becoming the top four that, you know, we all predicted would be there. It's Napoli Inter Milan Juve. And that's where they are. And I think Kostich, above all, the fact that they're getting as much out of him as they can by playing him as a wingback just shows everything. He's been their most impressive player, I think, during all of these D6 wins.
Speaker: Yeah, a few things to say here. I mean, first of all, I agree with you. I think that the top four is now kind of developing a little bit into the top four that we would expect it to be before the start of the season. No, we all said, as I just said, we all tipped it to be that top four.
Speaker: Yeah, there are obviously big positives from this game. But first of all, Juventus created, conceded virtually nothing in this game. And they they created, I wouldn't say they created loads and loads of chances, but they created enough big chances to win the game. But, you know, they probably deserve to win this game by a couple of goals, maybe not three nil. That was maybe a little bit harsh, as Sadie said himself. But I think Juventus were two goals better than Lazio and they didn't concede
Speaker: anything at all. The positives also are from a, from an individual point of view, the moisture cane, five goals in five games. I think he spoke after game how he's been on a strip diet, lost a lot of weight. Ned Ved's prediction of him scored 25 to 30 goals a season might not be as crazy as it once sounded. But yeah, I mean, I'm still not sure about him, to be honest, but I mean, he's on good form.
Speaker: I thought Kostich was great, like you said. Everything that Kostich does has substance. That's what I like about him. He is a one -dimensional player. There's no doubt about it. He runs his straight lines, but he's direct. He gets the ball. He puts a cross in. He delivers well.
Speaker: He's concrete. He's concrete. Yeah, that's what I mean. That's exactly what I mean. Everything that he does, he does it with a view to having an end product. It's quite a minimalist player, to be honest, but it's all with a view to getting an end result, an end product. And the same with that shot. He just smashed that in.
Speaker: OK, Provedel made an error, but, you know, he hit it in with such pace that that is likely sometimes those kind of things happen, you know. So, you know, Juventus have put themselves in a position now where, you know, they can get Chiesa, Di Maria and Pogba back in the year and fully fit. Then all of a sudden, you know, they should get the top four. They always should get a top four. I don't want people to start.
Speaker: Yeah, what I would say about this is this, right? Yes, you know, it's good. They've won six games in a row. I think they're definitely fighting for each other now that they're playing for each other. There was all lots of question marks about how do you lost the dressing room and everything. And maybe, you know, maybe there was a lot of people doubting him, but now they are playing for each other.
Speaker: right now. It's not good football. It's not the kind of football that I like seeing. It's counter -attacking football. You know, Lazio had, I think, 61 % of possession in the first half. You know, I don't like to see that football. I don't think it's sustainable at a high level, you know, if we're talking Champions League. That, as you say, you tweeted it yesterday, I have high standards, and I don't think it's forbidden of a big club to play that way. And, you know, to compete at a Champions League.
Speaker: But, you know, it's a start. They now need to maintain it. They have to maintain it now. You know, it's a good they've gone on a good run of form. But let's not, you know, get all these prison of the moments, and these elected disciples are all of a sudden saying that
Speaker: everybody that's been criticising Allegri, and that includes yourself, Nima, not just me, are all of a sudden... I have been criticising Allegri, but you've been saying that he's finished and he's a dinosaur. I've never said that. Yes. I stand by that. At the top highest level, I say he's finished. But people are using this six game winning run to make a point that everybody that's been doubtful and criticise Allegri, all of a sudden wrong.
Speaker: Well, all they've done is they've just gone on a good run of form. They haven't achieved anything. The league table doesn't lie, does it? I mean, it doesn't lie. Exactly. That's what I mean. Exactly. That's the whole point. They're 10 points off Napoli. And if you're assessing the season as a whole, it's been an incredibly negative season so far.
Speaker: for many reasons, from results, to performances, to injuries, to finances, and only some of this is Allegry's fault, it's not all Allegry's fault, but let's not all suddenly paint like this UVA of suddenly just because they've gone a good run, that suddenly everything is okay, that everybody that criticized Allegry is wrong, everything that's happened this season is forgotten, the fact that Juventus had their worst season in history in the Champions League and took three points from a group, you know, all of a sudden all of that is forgotten. It's been a
Speaker: It's so far, it's been an incredibly negative season. They're on a good run, great, fantastic, they have to continue. I think you've a season is very reminiscent of Inter so far and that is that they've had their crises and they've been at times absolutely dreadful.
Speaker: but there's still 30 -31 points. They're in the top four. Inter had a great Champions League group stage. Juventus did not. I'd say that's where the differences are between them. They're both in contention for top four. I still think that a Scudetto run might be a little bit out of both of their hands, but you never know because, as we said, you go into January, you Inter host Napoli,
Speaker: to gain a week or so afterwards, you will play Napoli, and then Napoli will play Roma. So it's crunch time now, it's squeaky bum time, and it's time for Napoli to show what their mettle is, because the Scudetto is not one in November or January or anything like that, it's one in May.
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